Revision as of 05:53, 29 January 2018

Kermodian: "A style of criticism that involves both wit and erudition, but also a certain world-weary curmudgeonliness" - Ian Brooks, managing editor of Collins Dictionaries and Thesauruses

Mark Kermode has, upon times, become more than usually agitated by what he sees as the particularly poor qualities of a film. When this happens it has become known as a Kermodian rant. Simon Mayo has observed that for a film to incur a full blown Kermodian Rant there has to be a "secondary infection", whereby the film is not only exhibiting poor quality, but is also offensive in some way to the Old Trot.

The phrase has its origins in a long argument debate between Mark and Simon about the word "Lacanian" in Basic Instinct 2 (in the words of David Morrissey, "there is one joke in Basic Instinct 2 - and I think you have killed it.") It was in response to this that a listener (Joe in Leeds) suggested that someone critiquing the arts in a gloriously lengthy rant should be described as Kermodian. Thus, an adjective was born.

The very next week, Ian Brooks, managing editor of Collins Dictionaries and Thesauruses, appeared on the programme to assess how likely the word "Kermodian" might appear on his books' pages. (The moment he introduced himself, he was immediately contradicted by both the Good Doctors, who felt it should be Thesauri.)

Mr Brooks suggested Kermodian (rather that "Kermodesque") because people stress the second syllable, although Mark insisted that it should be the first - but that people find it hilarious to emphasise the second because that makes Mark's name sounds like a portable toilet.

Kermodian has been used in the Northern Ireland assembly.

Films that produced notable rants, or are otherwise detested by Mark even many years after release, have been: